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karpierz

... because it gets them out of contractual obligations to deliver gas.

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But… they want to sell gas.

Right up until they prefer to deliver retribution by withholding gas.

Right, but the weapon is not the cutting of the supply, it's the threat. The fear that comes with uncertainty.

There is no uncertainty when the pipeline is damaged irreparably.

Russia had already been increasingly cutting gas supplies to Europe before the Nordstream pipeline was sabatoged. They weren’t just threatening.

If that's true, why blow up your own infrastructure when you can just cut the supply?

First, there’s no “if”, it’s a fact that can be easily verified. Second, I don’t pretend to know for a fact it was Russia. One of several reasons that I think it’s most likely is that Russia is the country involved here where one man’s irrational decisions would turn into action with virtually no checks.

Russia can close the valves on their end, and germany cannot do anything, since the EU their contractual obligations and literally promising to steal russian assets.

Destroying the pipelines doesn't benefit neither germany nor russia.

The volume has certainly been going down for a while, I'm not sure who's responsible for that. Like I would actually need to research that part. Russia can stop the pump while Europe can suspend payments. Both actions have the same effect on volume sold.

September 29, 2022 - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60131520

Russia has been reducing gas supplies through Nord Stream 1 for a number of months.

In June, it cut deliveries through the pipeline by 75% - from 170m cubic metres of gas a day to roughly 40m cubic metres.

In July, Russia shut it down for 10 days, citing the need for maintenance. When it reopened, the flow was halved to 20m cubic metres a day.

In late August, it shut down Nord Stream 1 entirely, blaming problems with equipment. The pipeline has not been open since then.

Looks like you are right.

and isnt it somewhat reasonable that if we do not believe the maintenance explanation, that it MIGHT just be that they are doing it to force the germans to put the stamp on the final opening approval for nord stream 2? there is a reason nord stream 2 was created, even though nord stream 1 exists.

Prevents potential assassins near Putin thinking they have an easy out.

From https://www.forbes.com/sites/arielcohen/2022/09/29/russian-s... :

If Nord Stream is shut down suddenly through “force majeure,” a sudden uncontrollable stop that is the fault of neither party, then Russia can void its obligations toward European stakeholders without legally breaking contracts, thus dodging the many penalties in doing so.

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